Before the ports I have to thank our Cruise Critic Roll Call leader, Fran aka peachcrek. She started the CC roll call and eventually organized a meet & greet and cocktail party the first day at sea as well as a group rate at a resort in Montego Bay. It’s a good thing Fran didn’t come by plane either, because her bags must have been stuffed to the gills. She bought special presents for the 3 birthday ladies (Mrs. Thelma celebrating 100, Elle 40 and another I’ve forgotten). She also had at least 20 door prize bags that were given out. They were pretty significant considering she isn’t an employee and dragged them down from NJ for a bunch of people she’d never met. We really appreciated her hard work and friendliness. We’d also like to thank Paul aka DeafDude for designing and printing door posters for everyone. We didn’t stay for the cocktail party because it was time to pick up the boys from Camp Carnival. We thought the adults would appreciate us not bringing them there. It would have been fun to spend more time actually meeting and greeting everyone. We’ll have to try next time without the […]

Ok, the real last one for the night. As I re-read my posts, I realize it’s possible to think I’m complaining. Since you can’t read my tone over the internet, please understand we had a great cruise and would board tomorrow if circumstances allowed. I’m trying to be realistic and report on the good and bad, things I was wondering before the cruise and things I think you might be wondering. Thanks again for the encouraging words. I will try to post more tomorrow when my schedule allows.

Last one for tonight: After watching the Mississippi for a long time, we attended the Camp Carnival orientation and then it was time for dinner. We chose early dining and were assigned to the Renoir Dining Room on 4 mid. Our waiter Gede and his assistant Imade were excellent throughout. I was a little bit disappointed with the seating because when the crew entertains, most of the action is on the 3rd floor where the anytime diners sit and we didn’t have much to see. Also, the windows of 4 mid would look out onto the liferafts, so they are covered. A little Carnival hiccup with dinner: somehow Carnival’s computer system decided we were travelling with a 70ish-year-old couple, presumably one of our parents. We weren’t, but that glitch got us assigned to a 6-person table with only 4 people at it, fewer when one or both boys ate with Camp Carnival. On the second night, the Maitre d’ came by to question us about our missing parents. We had to work to convince him we weren’t traveling with anyone else. He was then upset the mysterious couple had skipped dinner twice without bothering to notify him. If they showed […]

Looking down the ship from the deck. I don’t know what these ships do but they were about as big as us. 1x zoom again. That camera’s not too shabby! My New Orleans knowledge level is very low, but this looks like some sort of military base. There were signs on both sides reading “US Revetment.” Again, not sure, but this looked like a battlefield. I’m sure I could figure it out with Google but really, do you know how lazy I am?

Please let me know if I’m breaking these up too much. I think after so many pictures it’s best to start a new post rather than making one monstrosity that someone will no doubt quote entirely to say “thx.” Anyway, after lunch we briefly explored the aft outside deck. The Norwegian Star was parked right behind us. Coincidentally, we had already just about decided on a Baltic Capitals cruise someday, and the Star will be doing that duty for NCL next summer. We walked back to the cabin and noticed the suitcases were outside. I was anxious to see if our, ahem, enhancements to plain soda, ahem, had made it through unharmed. Those ром бегунов sure did the trick! While I had the suitcases open, I decided it was easy enough to just unpack. Elle usually puts all the hanging clothes right in with the hangers, so I was able to lift those out and be halfway done unpacking in about 30 seconds. I knew the safety drill was coming up, so I started looking for the life preservers. They were not in the designated closet but instead under the bed. I noticed we were short a child preserver and […]

Jack enjoying a lounger in the cool, windy NO weather. IIRC, it sprinkled a bit on us too before we left. Jack and Elle. He spends a lot more time with her since I work, but some days he’s a total Daddy’s boy. At 12:30, Elle wanted to make a run for the cabin. I told her she could open it first since it was partially her b-day present, but she surprised me by disappearing into the 10th floor somewhere while Jack and I fought our way through the Lido deck crowds. After some waiting I finally met her and Max in our gorgeous cabin. As I mentioned earlier, I’m going to leave most of the cabin pics and discussion in the Conquest Captain Suites thread. I took some quick pictures with the iPad and then we headed out for lunch. Although in retrospect I should have just gone with my gut and ordered a Guy’s burger every day, Elle persuaded me not to overload since it was already later and she wanted everyone hungry for dinner. We chose sandwiches from the deli and were able to get a table with a good view. The Carnival staff’s friendliness impressed us […]

I’m going to drop the DS/DH/DW lingo here because I’ve never been a huge fan of it and I always feel the need to nerd out about our DS being a DSer. Anyway, the family is: Me: Ted, 42 yo Wife: Elle, 40 the day before the cruise #1 Son: Max, 8 #2 Son: Jack, 5 Jack and I posed for a quick pic with my phone. The caption on Facebook read “On the ship. Phone off.” I wasn’t brave enough to turn it off right that second. My top button stopped working over Christmas and the only was I can power on my phone is with a plug. I wanted to wait until we were in the cabin before turning it off. I couldn’t resist running to the railing to take a picture of what would become our deck, right over the bridge there. Max and Elle were as excited as me.

After snoozing another few hours with DS5, we woke up. The first thing I did was check the static Erato St Terminal webcam, which wasn’t working 🙁 Some CC searching found me the streaming one from Zydecocruiser’s posts/website: http://wcerato.portno.com/view/viewer_index.shtml. For a mobile device, you can choose “Motion JPEG” from the streaming profile. Everyone gathered around me in the bed to look at pictures of our ship. We could easily make out the Captain’s Suites since they stick out on the right and left sides. I went back and forth over when to get to the terminal, fighting the urge to sit there at 7 am and wait for them to open the gates 🙂 My wife came up with a practical idea that made us slow down a bit: I don’t want to get on board and not be able to eat right away 🙂 I wasn’t sure precisely when the food would open, so we started looking for breakfast. My wife wanted beignets, and I started looking for Cafe du Monde locations. There seemed to be one right near the terminal, but I knew 1) the traffic would be a bit crazy for we country dwellers and 2) I […]

The day before the cruise, my wife’s 40th birthday, we made the uneventful 8-hour drive to New Orleans. There was a marathon in town, selling out a lot of the places offering a cruise parking package. We decided on a 2-bedroom unit at TownePlace Suites New Orleans Metairie for $189 a night. We’ve traveled plenty of times with the boys, and while a single room works, we get much better sleep with a door between the two of us. Thanks to a leisurely start from Arkansas, we arrived at the hotel around 6:30 pm. The front desk clerk frowned at the room list for a minute and then said, “I’m sorry, but we sold out of the type of room you requested. What they did for you was give you two 1-bedroom rooms that adjoin. The whole thing will cost $20 less, is that OK?” I try to stay calm when things don’t go right, but there was no downside to their mistake. We wound up with more space for less money and still got a door between us at bedtime. Naturally we were hungry, so we started the food search. The hotel is right next to a Popeye’s (tempting) […]